Custom Home Theaters

In the last section of this series I am going to talk little about where I am looking to go with this theater. I think we all have a wish list of things that we'd like to address in our systems...new equipment we want to get and places we want to make changes. I'll address my own personal thoughts here, and talk a little about what goes in to my decision making.

In this section I'll begin to talk about the ways in which I upgraded my room outside of actual equipment changes. Some of these changes were implemented to improve performance, while others were to improve the overall viewing experience. Either way, many of these are easy things that anyone can do in between the major equipment changes that we are often researching.

In this installment I am discussing my upgrade paths and the decisions that went into each change: Video, Audio and Other cconsiderations, including power conditioners. I've presented the changes that I decided on in a chronological manner, as I think that many of us approach our decisions in this way...

We all have a spare room. Well, many of us do. And those of us bitten by the A/V bug often dream about what we would do with that room. I have such a room, and six years ago embarked on a wild odyssey to build a dedicated A/V room from scratch. How could someone with limited construction skills, moderate budget, and even more limited tool selection, go about making a clean, professional looking dedicated home theater?

Thank you to all of the CAVE Members.......we have awarded the Lexicon, as announced in the CAVE.......The winner ofÂ the Blu-ray discs will be announced on Friday!!Â Â The next CAVE award will be "Officially" announced in next week's Newsletter.....(HINT:Â something special from our friends Downunder!!)Â So if you haven't signed up for the Newsletter, please do so now.....

Sign up as a member in the Secrets CAVE and you will have a chance to win our reference Lexicon MC-12B SSP (we are changing it out for a different product because we need HDMI audio inputs). This SSP is a superb product that can be used as a two-channel preamp if you wish.

Those of you that follow our show coverage, like CEDIA or CES will know the name Cinepro and its' President and Vice President Michael J. Panicci and Gus Cossifos respectively. Cinepro's dynamic demonstrations are very much talked about during the show. Although many of demonstrations are loud, what sets Cinepro apart is their commitment to playing back at "Dolby Digital Reference Levels", which cannot be done accurately without tons of power. So with their ever increasing â€œhow about another 10dB?â€ volume adjustments, if Gus & Michael were chefs, they'd be saying BAM as they added more spice!

SECRETS of Home Theater and High Fidelity was launched in 1994 as the first major publication offering serious audio/video journalism on the Internet.

Our magazine, which began with the publication of the SECRETS Primer, is available exclusively on-line and offers to our readers an extensive information resource about home theater and high-end audio.